Yesterday  in L.A. it was cold out. And grey. What I mean is, we had to wear socks & jackets. But we didn’t – we wore flip flops.

Anyway, what better meal to come home to at the end of the day than a thick, warm soup with homemade croutons? Try this for your next Meatless Monday (since it’s now Tuesday…)

I made a barley vegetable soup a few month ago and it was really good but this one is WAY better. I had bought a bag of dried split peas a few weeks earlier because I thought they’d be tasty but I wasn’t sure exactly what to do with them. Since I still had some barley in my cupboard, I looked for a recipe combining the two and VOILA! With some adjustments I had a hearty, thick and really tasty soup. It called for croutons and since I didn’t have any I made ‘em! This is the first time and I want to tell you – make croutons as often as you have soup. They are REALLY easy to make & add that extra something that soup sometimes needs.

Here we go! You’ll need these items:

SOUP INGREDIENTS:
2 c dried yellow split peas, rinsed & drained
6 carrots, chopped
6 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
3/4 c pearl barley, rinsed & drained
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper, to taste
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-1/2 TBSP olive oil
5 TBSP bouillon (I used vegetarian chicken flavored – you can also use vegetable broth or whatever you have on hand!)
10 c + 8 tsp water (adjust for desired thickness)

Let’s get started!

1. Saute chopped onions in the olive oil until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add crushed garlic for another minute. Be sure to stir occasionally to coat with oil.

2. Add carrots and celery. Stir to coat with oil and sauté for another 3-4 minutes.

3. Add split peas and powdered bullion/water to pot OR vegetable broth. Cover and bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat, add bay leaf and barley.

5. Simmer covered for about 2 hours.

No, it’s not 1:20PM. 60 minutes + 60 minutes.

D’OH!!! That’s a long time.

6. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Add water/broth as needed. I like my soup sort of thick so I didn’t. Sprinkle some croutons on top & serve.

How to make the croutons??

You’ll need:

CROUTON INGREDIENTS:
6 oz whole grain bread, cut into 1/2″ cubes
Olive oil
2 TBSP butter (or, you can just use 2 more TBSP olive oil which is just as tasty)
1 TBSP Dijon mustard

NOTE: I used one of my homemade breads that I froze a few weeks earlier. If it doesn’t get eaten within the first day or so, I freeze it for croutons. I hadn’t actually made any croutons, EVER, but I knew I would! That said, you can use any old bread you have – so next time you have a couple of heels from your Oroweat sandwich loaf – wrap them tightly in plastic wrap or a ZipLoc and freeze ‘em!)

This is so easy!

1. Preheat oven to 375. Cut bread into 1/2″ cubes.

2. Heat olive oil in saucepan. Melt butter in oil over medium heat. (Incidentally, you can also just use oil if you prefer.)

3. Pour heated oil/butter and mustard over bread cubes & toss to coat.

4. Spread bread cubes across a cookie sheet evenly.

5. Bake for about 12 minutes. Taste one – it should be crunchy, not chewy. If it’s chewy return it to the oven for another 2 minutes.

Sprinkle atop soup. YUM!

My helpers:

Soup adapted from Food.com
Croutons from Annie’s Eats.

Don’t be put off by the Vegan aspect – this cake is delicious! It’s also totally safe to lick the batter since there are no raw eggs in it. (Not that I worry too much about that…)

If that STILL doesn’t grab you – think of this as the: “I haven’t been to the store in a while but I still want cake!” cake.

Besides love, all you need is:

INGREDIENTS:
2-1/4 c all purpose flour
1/2 c cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s but original author recommends Dutch processed)
1-1/2 c granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c warm coffee
1/2 c plus 1 TBSP vegetable oil
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
small handful of chocolate chips/chunks

Let’s get started! I promise you will like this. Mine came out almost like a brownie.

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 in bundt pan (I don’t have one so I used a loaf pan. I’ll include cooking times for both bundt pans and loaf pans.) and dust with cocoa powder.

2. Whisk dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder & salt) together in a large bowl.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together coffee, oil and vanilla.

I didn’t take a picture of this so let your imagination run wild! Oooooo yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

5. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Pay attention to these baking times!

9″ BUNDT PAN: 30-35 mins
LOAF PAN: 35-40 mins
(or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean)

Dust with powdered sugar! I didn’t because one of my kids got the child proof lock off two of my kitchen drawers containing lots and lots of small tupperware dishes and lids as well as assortments of sippy cups and their various attachments. Well, anyway, I was distracted by my own yelling.

Serve with chocolate syrup, a glass of rice milk, or my favorite: a glass of cabernet.

From Joy the Baker.